I'm guessing the Republicans like us being there and Obama doesn't want to look "weak" by leaving in an election year. Henry, do you support our President's decision to stay the course of war in Afghanistan? If not, are you going to vote for him?

I don't support continuing our presence in Afghanistan, but I certainly will vote for Obama over Romney. Like you said, if he pulled our troops out now then the GOPers would use that as a reason to attack the president. Hopefully as soon as he is reelected, he'll end our involvement. If Romney wins, who knows.

Oh wow, man! I must be having a flashback. It's like it's 1964 all over again...

Doppel's dad: Henry, do you support our President's decision to stay the course of war in Indochina? If not, are you going to vote for him?

Young Henry V: I don't support continuing our presence in Indochina, but I certainly will vote for the peace candidate, LBJ over that warmonger, Goldwater. Like you said, if LBJ pulled our troops out now then the GOPers would use that as a reason to attack the president. Hopefully as soon as he is reelected, he'll end our involvement. If Goldwater wins, nuclear war. Well, maybe not nuclear war... but it will be bad. Goldwater is dangerous extremist - a reactionary right-winger who crusades against the Soviet Union - our ally in World War II. Goldwater wants to bust all the labor unions and tear down the progressive welfare system as we know it. He hates the Negroes and wants to bring back slavery. If Goldwater wins, I predict he will cook up some sort of Resolution in Congress which will give him the exclusive authorization to use military force without consulting the Senate. He'll base it on some false pretext - say an alleged but phony naval engagement between North Vietnamese boats and US destroyers. If Goldwater wins, there will be more than 20 times the number of U.S. personnel in South Vietnam as there are now. A President Goldwater will initiate America's direct involvement in a ground war in Vietnam. Mark my words, Doppel's Dad, if that right-winger Goldwater wins, by the time he's finished, over 550,000 American soldiers will be inside Vietnam and they will be killed at the rate of over 1,000 a month.

Last edited by Meade on Sat Apr 28, 2012 8:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

Henry Vilas wrote:Meade, you previously said you protested against the Vietnam War. Were you draft eligible (or maybe you were too young)? Did you number come up and if so, how did you avoid service?

Henry V, as I told you previously, in 1964 I was 10 and wanted to become a Green Beret. Five years later I decided to knowingly and willfully violate the Military Selective Service Act of 1967, which I did in 1972. I avoided serving time in prison because I was never arrested and charged with my crime. In 1973 Nixon created an all-volunteer armed forces. After Nixon shot himself in the foot by trying to cover up crimes committed by his subordinates during what has become known as Watergate, and after Democrats in Congress surrendered Vietnam, Ford eliminated the registration requirement for all 18–25 year old male citizens. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter, who said he loved us and promised to never lie to us, signed Proclamation 4771, Registration Under the Military Selective Service Act, retroactively re-establishing the Selective Service registration requirement for all 18–26 year-old male citizens born on or after January 1, 1960 because Democrats and Progressives seem to love government mandates and the draft.

Henry, please make a note of all this so I don't have to keep repeating myself. Thank you.

No, Henry, more like big issues such as letting every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

In my opinion, we're still in Afghanistan because Bush 43 became distracted by Iraq. Had his adminstration focussed on winning the Afghan war, it would have been over before the 08 presidential election. It may even have changed the outcome of that.

Why are we still there? Will Rogers said it best: "Stupidity got us into this. Why won't it get us out?"

Why stop with Afghanistan? It's time to demand an end to our Nobel Peace Prize winner's new imperial strategy of global military offensive cloaked in "humanitarian" interventionist rhetoric. No to his targeted assassinations, undeclared wars, occupations, and interventionist military alliances. Lets bring all the troops, mercenaries, war contractors, death squads, and "advisors" home now from Iraq, Libya, Pakastan, Columbia, Haiti, Cuba/Guantanamo, and Korea. Get them out of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. No to the U.S. backed military coup in Honduras, the U.S. troop build-up in Austrailia and threats of intervention in the China Sea. Lets close the 1000 plus U.S. military bases around the world and stop quibbling about where next to deploy our overwhelming war machine to make the world more amendable to Wall Street. While we are at it lets end U.S. aid to dictators everywhere, military aid and weapons exports to the Egyptian military, and stop the U.S. initiated military buildup in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen and other regimes crushing popular democratic movements.